Today, I got a text from Mike Ryan who was for many years an area high school and university football coach. The text started by asking me to help find fosters for 5 handicapped dogs who were recently found abandoned in the desert. I said I would help network. If anyone can help these doggies that have rescue support but need fosters/adopters who want to make a difference, please text Diley at +1 (909) 446-2493. 

Then, Mike sent me this amazing letter he sent today to the Apple Valley City Council members requesting basically a refeee to help solve the Apple Valley Animal Shelter's laundry list of current crisis issues. If you can help foster a handicapped dog, please text me at 213-948-3165. Below you'll find the letter that Mike Ryan sent to me and gave me permission to share.

Mayor Scott Nassif
Apple Valley Town Council Town Hall Council Chambers 14955 Dale Evans Parkway Apple, Valley, CA 92307

Dear Mayor Nassif [and town council members],

Based upon the last Town Council meeting, you are at least slightly aware of the horror show taking place in Animal Services in Apple Valley, and merely saying that you care about animals and have two shelters [which is technically not true, although a second one maintains its residence within the town boundaries... you might not want to be too closely associated with it either], is 100% insufficient when it comes to boots on the ground care for the actual living animals and those being destroyed in apocalyptic numbers within your town boundaries and on your watch. This note assumes you have, at a minimum, some initial awareness of the issues. They are not going gentle into that good night, but instead will continue until you and the council take appropriate steps to create an actual shelter and leadership within it that the town and its residents can be both proud of and feel like they are part of in every way.

I’ve lived in Apple Valley since 2007, and for the first 13 years I was blissfully unaware of the goings on in the dog business up here and in particular with the Apple Valley Animal Shelter [excepting my one visit to potentially adopt a dog which was entirely unsatisfactory, so I moved on to an actual rescue] and its slight companion the Victor Valley Animal Protection League. However, since my retirement from teaching, I volunteered in a rescue and through my concern for dogs I was introduced to actual physical and hands-on dog rescue. As a result of the last two experiences, I have run headlong into the problems of ego, pride, cruelty, and perhaps we’ll call it laziness, because if it’s not that, then it is pure indifference emanating from the leadership of the Apple Valley Animal Shelter as it disassociates from rescues and rescue groups, drags its feet with granting pull rights, and lacks transparency in publishing and discussing the numbers of deaths taking place within its walls, and these are all just starting points for more direct attention and action.

Even though it’s only a drop in the bucket, but I’ve rescued over 227 dogs in the high desert in the last two years, not including the puppies that sometimes come afterwards. In that capacity and out there trapping the difficult dogs, trying desperately to get to a dog before animal control can get there so we can save it from either its own demise or the destruction of another animal to make room for the captured one, and working with rescuers [including my friend Brandon McMillan who used to host the CBS show Lucky Dog] and rescues throughout San Bernardino, Ventura, and Los Angeles County, my eyes have been opened, as would yours if you got a little dirty and went in and looked at the facility, the behind the scenes, the paperwork and the overall facility, got the euthanasia data, stretched back over the last five years to see how many rescue partners have been cut off, shut out, or simply had all their processes and applications slowed to a 3-4 month or more crawl, and spent two or three days observing the ins and outs of the facility, its management style, and its vertical working systems, spoke to people concerned about what’s going on, and you looked
and listened without preconceived notions. Honestly, I know more than I’d like to, and it’s extremely gut-wrenching and uncomfortable, so maybe that’s why no one has stepped up to deal with the problems at the shelter or with its contracted neighbor, Victor Valley Animal Protection League.

Sometimes you don’t know you don’t know, and that’s life: a form of blissful ignorance. However, when lives are at stake, when the town’s reputation and appearance in the light to surrounding communities and potentially the nation, and when the blinders are off, there’s no excuse for lack of action. Therefore, I call on you to take action... to do something. Doing nothing, maintaining the status quo, well, that is its own form of evil and will be judged accordingly in the coming months and for the much longer term. If you, as a team, are unwilling to commit to doing the investigation yourselves, then appoint an ombudsman with unfettered access and sweeping powers in his/her probe, and then act upon the recommendations with appropriate speed and monitored results.

In closing, I debated about throwing story after story at you, about throwing my experiences and the experiences of almost all of my rescue friends when it comes to the Apple Valley Animal Shelter and its leadership team, but this letter would be 8-10 pages long and likely be tossed into the round file and dismissed as sour grapes. Personally, I have no ax to grind from my own experiences, other than finding the staff there generally ignorant about dogs, and not very helpful when you enter, but these are simple and not worthy of any deeper exploration. However, when it comes to dog rescue, to saving those abandoned, dumped, or lost, well, I will never take a dog to either facility for the main reason stated above. And yes, I realize that there’s an epidemic of dog dumping, but it goes hand-in-hand with hideous policies, poor management, and lack of accountability and transparency at the shelter, the lack of educational and safety programs and practices provided by animal services for the community it supposedly serves, and the lack of free or inexpensive animal spays/neuters.
In November, I was approached by two documentary filmmakers who want to explore and dive into what’s happening to dogs in the high desert, because as they filmed for Brandon or saw what was going on, they were aghast and believe more people should know the stories, should see and experience the gut-wrenching and life-changing scenes. It would behoove the town of Apple Valley to look better once the filming begins this summer. If status quo remains, it’s just going to look and sound bad [like the German Shepherd Brandon and I rescued that was out there for over four months according to a policeman who lived nearby, right behind VVAPL whose staff watched us rescue the dog from behind their fences, who had to see the dog EVERY day and yet did not lift a finger to deal with it, or the emaciated and near death Italian Mastiff in the field south of Granite Hills High School, the one that had been out there for at least two weeks, visible to any who passed by and who had a broken leg, yet no one from animal services bothered – I rescued him and he’s now living the best life with my friend in Hesperia].
One of the great things about the United States and its people is our ability to admit when we’re not doing our best, when we’re wrong, when we’ve missed something, and stand up, step up, and make changes and DO BETTER. We, as a town and community, and you, as leaders and spokespersons for the town, can and must do better.

Sincerely,
Mike Ryan